Talona Mountain sits west of town like a long green shoulder, and on an August afternoon the thunderheads stack up behind it by three o'clock. Talona Mountain Services LLC works with one eye on that sky, finishing the mowing and trimming while the air is still and getting the clippings blown off the walks before the rain arrives to glue them down. North Georgia grass grows hard in the wet heat, so the work here is weekly and unglamorous: cut, trim, edge, tidy, move on. In fall the same routes become leaf routes, and in spring they become mulch and shrub-trimming days. Every yard in these hills has its own slope and its own set of awkward corners, and learning them is most of the job. What lasts after the truck pulls out is a clean line where lawn meets bed, holding through the next storm.